Leadership Conference of Women Religious

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Weeks after authorizing a continued investigation of American nuns, Pope Francis told a group of nuns and priests from Latin America not to worry if they found themselves under similar scrutiny.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) With one of the more colorful unscripted expressions that have become a hallmark of his young pontificate, Pope Francis reminded nuns that they should be “fertile” spiritual mothers, not “‘spinsters.”

VATICAN CITY (RNS) When the Vatican’s doctrinal office informed the office that oversees religious orders about a probe of American nuns, the cardinal who heads the office was told the investigation was already completed.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The decision to continue a Vatican overhaul of U.S. nuns, while not entirely unexpected, could nonetheless bring an end to Pope Francis’ honeymoon with the many American Catholics who had viewed the crackdown on nuns as heavy-handed and unnecessary.

WASHINGTON (RNS) A top leader in the group of Catholic nuns who are facing a crackdown from the Vatican says her members have no plans or desire to leave the church, or reconstitute their group beyond Vatican control. By Kevin Eckstrom.

ST. LOUIS (RNS) Catholic sisters gathered at their annual assembly intensified discussions on Thursday (Aug. 9) aimed at thwarting a Vatican takeover of their group, but hanging over the meeting was an even larger, existential question: Do the nuns have a future? By David Gibson.

ST. LOUIS (RNS) As hundreds of nuns met here on Wednesday to begin crafting an answer to Vatican demands that their leaders toe the line on orthodoxy, there was a pervasive sense that this week's discussions could lead to a fateful juncture in the history of Catholicism in America.

AMITYVILLE, N.Y. (RNS) Some critics say many Catholic sisters have been using the Second Vatican Council to justify positions and activities that are in conflict with official church teachings, but some nuns say they are living by Vatican II's call to get out of the convent and into the community. By Kim Lawton of Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

(RNS) American nuns who are under investigation by the Vatican say last week's discussions with Rome were “difficult” and indicate that public comments by a number of U.S. bishops have not made negotiations easier. By David Gibson.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Leaders of an umbrella group that represents the majority of U.S. nuns met with top Vatican doctrinal officials on Tuesday (June 12) in an atmosphere of “openness and cordiality,” according to a Vatican statement. By Alessandro Speciale.

(RNS) It takes a strong backbone for a woman to stand up to the men at the Vatican when you’ve been publicly reprimanded by some of its most powerful men. But an umbrella group of American nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, is doing just that in calling the recent Vatican indictment against them “unsubstantiated” and “flawed.” By Mary Johnson.

(RNS) Now it turns out that conservative U.S. churchmen living in Rome, including disgraced former Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, were key players in pushing the Vatican crackdown on U.S. nuns. By David Gibson.

WASHINGTON (RNS) As Pope Benedict XVI marks the seventh anniversary of his papacy with a crackdown on American nuns, many Catholics are wondering if the pontiff is finally becoming the papal enforcer that some feared – and others hoped – he was elected in 2005. By David Gibson.

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Vatican on Wednesday announced a crackdown on the organization representing most nuns and sisters in the U.S. following an investigation that said religious sisters weren't toeing the line on women's ordination, same-sex marriage and other issues. By David Gibson.